


Bonding

by Wren_Alloway



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Goodbyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:40:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29040252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wren_Alloway/pseuds/Wren_Alloway
Summary: It's time to say goodbye.A short fic I wrote awhile ago about Bond and Q saying their last goodbye.
Relationships: James Bond & Q, James Bond/Q
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	Bonding

The Double O program had shut down almost two years ago. The Nine World's program was up and running and there was nothing to stop it. People like C could get anything they wanted. M Still fronted what remained of Britan's Secret Service with Money Penny at his side. But the old guard was gone. And many faces Bond didn't know roamed the corridors of MI6.  
James had been sent in to get some final realise forms signed about a month ago. He hadn't missed the fine print that stated that the government still owned him. To put it simply, one wrong move and that was that. If he thought he had no control over his life before, it was worse now. After the papers had been signed and heavily veiled threats exchanged, he couldn't help but... dare he say it, spy around the place.  
A deep hole opened in his stomach as he walked into the rooms he once knew and had the doors slammed in his face. Before he was escorted out by security he caught sight of a steel grey door propped slightly open. Within this room was monitor after monitor with faces of people he knew plastered on them. Tanner's face flashed up on a screen quickly replaced by Alec's then Moneypenny's. The entire old Q branch had whole row of monitors dedicated to them, ready to pull the plug on any of them if they tried to reveal the fact that the kept an intruding eye on them. But it was all perfectly legal, the had all signed along the dotted line.  
James didn't mind the security tale taking him out of the building, he needed to be out of there now. His breath was coming short and fast. He wasn't unfamiliar with Anxiety but he knew how to control it. But his old life was slipping threw his finger's like putty and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

James stood beside Q in awkward silence, they knew they would probably never see each other again. At that moment where the last words would sick forever, the right ones didn't come. This would be by far the hardest goodbye, for the certainty that once Q stepped off the pavement and crossed the street to the new life that awaited him, James wouldn't be apart of it.  
Q's parent's sat at a relatively busy cafe quietly enjoying one another's companionship and pleasantly drinking some kind of tea. The third seat at their table sat empty.

-

Q knew that chair was for him. He could picture himself sat there pointing over his mother's shoulder trying to help as she fiddled with her phone and ultimately pressed the wrong button. It would seem tiresome and trivial to most but that simple bonding moment had been missed for ten years now. Ten years since his 'accident' and ten years since he'd hugged his parents. M said if he joined this new life then he had to disappear completely, leave his family behind and start anew, if his parent's believed he was dead then so would the rest of the world. If he was to go now, take that seat and be with them. He would be admitting his old life and turning away from the agency forever.  
He glanced at Bond from behind his glasses and noticed for the first time, how tired he looked. Of course, there have always been times when Bond has dragged himself threw the doors of MI6 covered in blood and utterly shattered but he always recovered. But age was finally seeping around the edges of his cool and collected mask. Lines that told stories, and scars that whispered of hidden truths.  
Q didn't like to admit it, but he felt dwarfed by this man. Bond had seen so much in such little time, lived so many lives in just one. And he was going to miss him.  
"So," Q said looking down at his hands "I suppose this is it... 007." Bond met his gaze. Q could see the gears behind his eyes turning as he searched for something to say.  
Of all the things he could say, he settled with "Q" and held out his hand. Q took it slowly not used to such formalities. And that was that. They both nodded once more and Bond stepped away, except Q couldn't let a year's of... well damn he'll admit it friendship end like that.  
"I never did tell you my real name, Bond." He said quickly before 007 could walk away "It's Andrew." He didn't need to say much more than that. It had enough of an effect. "M was the only one who knew-- I think she didn't want me saying in case I chickened out, something about being too innocent for this world or some bullshit."  
Bond paused before saying "You still do you have spots." Q laughed perhaps a little louder then he should have. 

-

Bond watched Q's cheeks flush from embarrassment. He straightened his glasses as he did letting a small lock of hair fall forward. He didn't realise he had reached forward to tuck it back until his fingers brushed the other man's ear. He let his hand drop to his side quickly covering up how awkward he felt by portraying a facade of indifference. Q met his gaze with a small amount of shock and his cheeks flushed a little redder. Bond cleared his throat and nodded his head at the couple waiting at the table "They'll want to see you."  
"I should hope so," Q said quietly. Then he appeared to snap back to the world before him and shouldered his bag "I hope to at least pass you on the street. I fear that will be the only way we shall correspond." Bond opened his mouth to respond but had the breath knocked out of him by a fierce hug. It was the kind of hug that is instinctual and a little more forceful than either party expected. And before Bond could wrap his arms around the hugger or even think to, Q pulled away "I'm a hugger," he said, "Never seemed to come up before now." And with that, he left.  
James watched as he slowly approached his family. It was a sweet interaction. They stared at each other for almost a full minute before his father lept up and hugged him. Q dropped his bag and hugged him back. His mother stood up so abruptly that he knocked over her tea and nearly flipped the table. They stood in each other embrace for quite some time. Q's father latched onto him hugging him between looking at his son's face while his mother played with her son's hair as if checking it was really real.  
James realised it was time to go when Q met his eyes from across the street. James nodded and turned away. He didn't miss the way his eyes burned at the final goodbye and the tear that dropped from Q's lashes.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Feedback is Welcome.
> 
> Thanks for reading.


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